Episode Overview

Podcast: Hillsdale College K-12 Classical Education Podcast
Episode Title: Forming a Student’s Affection for Beauty in Art
Date: September 29, 2025
Guest: Monica Dix, Art Teacher at Naples Classical Academy, Naples, FL
Host: Scott Bertram

This episode explores how classical education fosters an appreciation for beauty in art, emphasizing the significance of aesthetic experience in forming students’ hearts and minds. Art teacher Monica Dix shares her insights into teaching Renaissance art, connecting beauty with truth and goodness, cultivating a beautiful classroom environment, and encouraging students to genuinely desire and pursue beauty—regardless of their background or skill level.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Monica Dix’s Journey Into Classical Education

• Monica began her journey into classical education when her children attended a Hillsdale member school, sparking her curiosity about the curriculum and pedagogy. Eventually, she became one of the first teachers hired at Naples Classical Academy.
  [01:48]

  “It started with my children attending a Hillsdale member school and I just got curious about what they were learning... and I realized that I had something to share.” — Monica Dix

The Importance and Teaching of Renaissance Art

• Renaissance art is “beautiful, attractive, and appealing,” making it an essential focus for classical schools. Monica emphasizes teaching the humanity of Renaissance artists, demystifying their distance in time, and making their work accessible and relatable to today’s students. [02:30]

  “…the artists that made the art that we're studying… they were people, and they weren't that different from us.” — Monica Dix

The Role of Beauty in Classical Education

• Beauty stands alongside truth and goodness as one of the “big three transcendentals” central to classical education.

• Beauty has both an immediate and formative impact on students, influencing their desire to seek what is good and true. [03:36]

  “We can’t ignore that third transcendental. We have to pay attention to beauty. It matters.” — Monica Dix

• Plato’s Ladder & The Draw of Beauty: Beauty draws us upwards—to knowledge and virtue—acting as a gateway to truth and goodness.
  [04:45]

  “Plato's ladder… we're climbing these rungs to reach this ultimate perfection. And beauty is one of those things that leads us up the ladder that draws us.” — Monica Dix

Beauty in School Culture (for Students, Teachers, and Administrators)

For Students:

• Creating a beautiful and welcoming environment helps students feel comfortable, open, and receptive to learning.
  [06:05]

  “…if it’s not welcoming, that's not good. They're not going to give their best….” — Monica Dix

For Educators and the School Community:

• The effort to foster beauty affects not just students but all who inhabit the school. Teachers and administrators can influence beauty through speech, environment, and the materials used.
  [07:02]

  “…that's for us as well. We are in this building together... we will all reap the rewards of that.” — Monica Dix
  “…the beauty of sound, of our speech, the art that we hang on the walls, the books that we read...”—Monica Dix

Practical Tips: Creating a Beautiful Classroom

• Use natural or warm lighting, thoughtfully placed art, and carefully arranged spaces.
• Attend to the flow and function of the room; beauty is not only visual but also rooted in ease of movement and atmosphere. [08:45]

  “Choosing the art, placing it carefully… things like traffic flow… So I think those are some of the things to consider even in your small domain as a classroom teacher.” — Monica Dix

Beauty and Moral Character Development

• Teachers form students’ character partly by modeling virtuous choices and behaviors, recognizing that students imitate what they see. Every small, right, or beautiful act contributes to a culture of virtue.
  [10:24]

  “…when you have students literally and figuratively watching you and you see the results, they'll imitate things that you do, even things you weren't consciously expecting them to do.” — Monica Dix
  “Every right decision, every right behavior, every beautiful choice, it helps the next one come a little more easily.” — Monica Dix

Supporting Beauty on Different Budgets

• Small Budgets:

  • Purchase affordable plaster casts of classical sculpture.
  • Create still lifes or borrow/buy prints and original works from local artists.
  • Even simple, well-chosen objects or arrangements foster contemplation. [11:25]

  “I would say… what smaller thing could you create that wouldn't be expensive… I make a still life… It's beautiful and it stays.” — Monica Dix

• Large Budgets:

  • Prioritize inspiring architecture and consider bringing in visiting artists for talks.
  • Building beauty into the foundation of the school has enduring impact. [14:35]

  “Now, if you had an unlimited budget, well, I would start with the architecture…a cathedral, 600 years? Well, you know, the result was good.” — Monica Dix

Classical vs. Conventional Art Education

• Classical Art Teaching:
  • Focuses on process, not just product; art class is not a party or just about fun but intentional cultivation of mind, heart, and soul.
  • Long-term effort and discipline are required to achieve beauty. [14:46]

  “…art class is not a party. It's not just playing with materials…It's more about the process, about what's happening in the mind, in the heart, in the soul.” — Monica Dix

Cultivating a Desire for Beauty

• Most people naturally move toward the beautiful if given quiet, contemplative spaces.
• A teacher’s job is to create moments of true leisure and gentle guidance, allowing beauty to attract and engage students. [16:04]

  “If you can give them…a space where they can contemplate and relax and have true leisure, not just downtime, their brains will start to look around in a different way…We move toward the beautiful.” — Monica Dix

The Value of Art for Non-Artists

• Art and art history offer all students—regardless of career aspirations—benefits in process, attentiveness, and hands-on experience.
• Monica advises against art school as the default next step, recommending a broader, integrated education and apprenticeships instead. [18:06]

  “I just want them to be in the room, work through the process, try things out…art should be part of something larger.” — Monica Dix

Assessment and Grading in Art

• Evaluation focuses on process, effort, and willingness to persist through challenges—not “natural talent” or the finished result.
• Grading is formative: involves midpoints, observation, and emphasizes following steps, not simply mimicking a finished example. [21:11]

  “It's about working the process, learning what the process is…If you can notice mistakes and then just dig in and fix them, that would be it.” — Monica Dix
  “I watch them while they're working and I take notes if I have to… did the student do the steps?...I don't show them my finished work…We're going to work together.” — Monica Dix

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “To even strive to be a virtuous, a moral person is a big, big task. It should rightly consume your life. It should enter into all of your decisions.” — Monica Dix [10:24]
• “Beauty attracts us to [goodness and truth]. The more of it we can get visually and even with the way things sound and feel in a school, the closer we can bring our students to goodness and truth.” — Monica Dix [03:36]
• “A beautiful building, a welcoming entrance, welcoming people who are speaking kindly. So that beauty in our speech is important too.” — Monica Dix [06:05]
• “Art class is not about just making something pretty to hang on your wall. It’s more about the process, about what’s happening in the mind, in the heart, in the soul.” — Monica Dix [14:46]
• “I try to approach it like that. We're going to work together. I'm going to do the steps. You're going to do the steps. And I'll work side by side with them that way, too.” — Monica Dix [22:33]

Timestamps for Segment Highlights

• [01:48] Monica Dix’s path to classical education
• [02:30] Why Renaissance art matters and how to teach it
• [03:36] Beauty’s role in classical education; connecting with truth and goodness
• [06:05] Creating beautiful school environments for students
• [07:02] Beauty’s impact on educators and the broader community
• [08:45] Practical ideas for making classrooms beautiful
• [10:24] Connection between beauty, character, and virtue in teaching
• [11:25] Budget-friendly tips for supporting beauty in the classroom
• [14:46] How classical art teaching diverges from conventional models
• [16:04] Training students to desire, not just passively see, beauty
• [18:06] The lasting value of art education for all students, not just aspiring artists
• [21:11] Grading and assessment strategies in art that reward process, not innate talent

This episode offers a practical, philosophical, and inspiring look at how beauty—properly cultivated—can shape not only artists, but all students and the wider school community.